This long... So before everybody gets too crazy and out of control, lets pump the brakes just a little bit and take a look at what we really saw from our beloved Lions last night. Yeah it was great to pick up an opening season win on Monday Night Football and have a 21 point margin of victory, but just how genuine was our dominating performance? The level that Matthew Stafford performed at last night has been well documented both in the post game commentary and all over the media world today, and I really dont have many bad things to say about his game. He made good decisions, he looked poised and under control, he STEPPED UP INTO THE POCKET - something he very rarely did last year. You heard a lot of his line calls last night too, he was identifying blitzers, changing the blocking scheme, and Jon Gruden talked a lot about how he was calling 2 plays in the huddle and killing based on what he saw when they got to the line. That in itself was light years from the Stafford weve been watching his first few seasons at the helm. I loved it. Calvin Johnson was nothing short of ridiculous last night. The balls that guy gets to is just absolutely crazy. There was a sideline catch he made in the 1st half that was called back for illegal touching because he must have grazed the sideline, but the catch itself was one of the most amazing things Ive seen in recent memory. Then theres the other non-catch in the end zone where he got his toe and knee down in bounds, but just didnt quite complete the process of the catch - just getting to that ball and making it somewhat close was insane. And oh, by the way the 2nd touchdown where he displayed that 2 Car Garage sized Catch Radius wasnt too shabby either. The Offensive Line was up and down I thought. There were times where Stafford had a lot of time to scan the field, step into the pocket, and deliver the ball. There were other times where Riley Rieff and Rob Sims got destroyed. Dominic Raiola I think played a pretty sub-standard game, he got dominated at the point of attack more often than not, and he didnt get to the 2nd level at all, which was why we had trouble with the Screen game. The running game was completely and totally inept against a very below average NY Giants defense. The only time the running game ever got off the ground, was conveniently enough on that last TD drive of the game in the 4th quarter when they needed it to. Drives like that, by the way, are exactly what Jim Caldwell and the Lions have been preaching all Off season with their We need to FINISH better mantra. The rest of the game, however, the running game was a complete non-factor. Defensively, I thought the line was dominating. Suh was an absolute beast in the middle, and was straight ABUSING the Guard/Center double team he faced the whole night. It was nice to see Fairley have a strong game and respond to the issues he faced in the preseason. The Linebackers played ok, I thought Tulloch was a little weak in his coverage drops, but against the Giants he was able to make it work. The run defense was terrific. The secondary, our main area of concern, played a pretty good game. Darius Slay had a couple PIs that I think hell learn to avoid once he starts to trust his technique a little more. Truth is, on the PI he got in the end zone he was in position, he didnt need to grab the receiver. When is the last time a #23 actually looked back and located a ball in the air? Chris Houston never did it... so that was refreshing to see. Areas of concern: Offensive Line, specifically the left side. I thought Hilliard came on strong on the right side when Waddle went out, and Warford had a strong game. Sims and Reiff were bad, and Raiola was really bad. Need to play better. We averaged 2.0 yards per carry - that is horrific. Penalties - now the roughing the punter and at least 1 of the hands to the face calls were garbage. Still too many penalties, we let the Giants off the hook. Depth - with Bill Bentley maybe tearing an ACL we are going to need another CB to either step up or come in and learn the scheme in a hurry. I thought Nevin Lawson looked completely lost out there last night, and Gruden nailed it wondering why Eli wasnt targeting Victor Cruz with that mismatch. Ihedigbo and Carey are both hurt in the secondary also. Couplin and Abdul-Quddus did alright in replacement, but again, the Giants are terrible. Other teams will exploit that weakness if its not corrected. Levy and Tulloch were all over the field recording 10 and 9 tackles respectively. Tahir Whitehead, on the other hand, completely disappeared. He was a monster in the preseason games, even as a starter going against other teams #1s. Last night, he did nothing. If hes the guy that is going to fill the void left by Kyle Van-Noys injury, we gotta get more than 1 tackle out of him. Tulloch was bad in pass coverage like I said above, but we knew that about him when he came in from Tennessee. Next week we travel to Carolina, and I dont want anybody panicking when we lose that game. Carolina is a tough team, Cam Newton will be back, we are coming off a short week, and they are going to be hyped up for their first home game just like we were last night. I think we are good enough to win that game, but I think Carolina will come out on top. Thoughts?
Posted on: Tue, 09 Sep 2014 19:10:15 +0000